Seven decades have passed since the day when the act of complete and unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany was signed in Karlshorst, a suburb of Berlin. In people's memory the feat of the Soviet people accomplished by them in the name of freedom and independence of their homeland will never fade.
During the Great Patriotic War (1941-1945) every honest citizen of our Homeland sought to make a contribution to the victory over the enemy commensurate with their abilities. Painters did their part too. In June 1941 the students and lecturers of the Academy of Arts went to the front. The painters faced a responsible task to create a painted chronicle of the war, to preserve for future generations the visible image of the feat accomplished by the people.
Many painters took part directly in active service. During infrequent free time they did pencil sketches of the harsh realities of war registering what found no way into meager frontline reports. In those hard years, exhibitions of war-time painters were repeatedly arranged, including in the besieged Leningrad.
Paintings and drawings of the Great Patriotic War are inseparable from the destiny of our country and its people who went through the extreme trials.
The exhibition presents paintings and drawings by painters, former frontline soldiers, who worked in the studio of marine painters at the Central Naval Museum in the postwar years. The studio was founded in 1952, it has been operating at the CNM since 1963 and until presently has been the single creative entity of this type in our country. The studio’s masters successfully carry on rich traditions of the national marine painting.
In the studio of marine painters at the CNM 16 participants of the Great Patriotic War worked at different times:
BABKOV Sergey Fedorovich (1920-1993, in the studio from 1963 to 1964);
BAYKOV Leonid Petrovich (1918-1994, in the studio from 1968 to 1977);
BANTIKOV Andrei Sergeyevich (1914-2001, in the studio from 1964 to 1967);
BELTYUKOV Boris Mikhailovich (b. 1926, in the studio from 1952 to 1962);
VASILYEV Anatoly Ilyich (1917-1994, in the studio from 1967 to 1972);
YEREMIN Aleksey Grigoryevich (1919-1998, in the studio from 1965 to 1970);
YERSHOV Boris Grigoryevich (1917-1996, in the studio from 1952 to 1962);
YEFIMOV Aleksandr Alekseyevich (1905-1964, led the studio in 1953-1962 years);
KALINKIN Georgy Aleksandrovich (1915-1983, in the studio from 1952 to 1962);
KULIKOV Nikolay Timofeyevich (1910-1985, in the studio from 1963 to 1970);
MOLTENINOV Konstantin Georgiyevich (b. 1924, in the studio from 1963 to 1965);
PECHATIN Valentin Aleksandrovich (1920-2006, in the studio from 1963 to 2006, led the studio in 1963-1986)
RAZDROGIN Igor Aleksandrovich (b. 1923, in the studio in 1965);
SLAVIN Kim Nikolayevich (1928-1991, in the studio from 1970 to 1979);
SOBOLEVSKY Konstantin Mikhailovich (1908-1970, in the studio from 1952 to 1960);
CHEBOTAREV Viktor Sergeyevich (1915-1992, in the studio from 1952 to 1962).
The exhibition presents only a small potion of the rich painting heritage of the studio’s masters, participants of the Great Patriotic War. Their works can be seen in most rooms of the CNM.
The exhibition of the works by painters who were frontline soldiers is a contribution of the Central Naval Museum to the celebration of the 70th anniversary of the Great Victory, a tribute to memory of the defenders of the Homeland in the tragic and glorious years of the Great Patriotic War.
